They say all good things come to he who waits, but I have no idea if that’s true. I’ve never really been a he who waits.
Certainly my experience in finding a US publisher for my forthcoming book suggests there’s some truth in the aphorism. Despite the best efforts of my agent, my publisher and countless well-meaning, well-connected friends, no publisher on this side of the Atlantic took even a slight interest in The Upgrade. Some, I’m sure, thought it was a lousy book, but most simply demurred on the grounds that it was “very British”.
By last month the situation had got so desperate – so ridiculous – that I wrote a column on TechCrunch pleading for someone to build an eBay for foreign book rights; a platform where I could at least give away the rights for free to some backwater US publisher with nothing to lose.
Sadly, as of today, no entrepreneur has heeded my call. But, to be honest, I don’t really care: the column had another slightly ironic – and utterly satisfying – consequence. It finally got me a US deal.
With a great publisher. For actual money.
The break came a few hours after the column was published.…
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